Agent V
by Hale Comet
Summary: Ginny Weasley is a Gryffindor: loyal, strong, and brave. But who is she loyal to, what does she fight for, and who does she stand up to? Cool secret-agent type fic that flirts w GD but is really about deeper things like nifty gadgets and witty banter.
1. Chapter One

Agent V  
  
A cool new spy thriller from the master of Harry Potter disaster, Hale Comet. (emphasis on the disaster, by the way)  
  
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She was younger back then. She barely knew what she was getting into. But she knew that she wanted it more than anything. To finally be important. Wanted. Needed.  
  
And this was the last test, the last step between herself and her goal.  
  
"Where do you want the mark, Virginia?" He twirled the branding iron like a marching band cadet, like it was an extension of himself.  
  
Ginny Weasley sat on the ground, soaking wet, freezing, tired. She had been through a lot to get here, to this moment. It was the culmination of all her efforts.  
  
She took off her robe, unbuttoned her shirt, took off her skirt. "Where would you like it?"  
  
It was the right answer. His cold fingers grabbed her surely and turned her around, tracing a squiggle on the left side of her lower back, giving her goosebumps. "I think here," he whispered into her ear, leaning into her. "My favorite place."  
  
He pressed hot iron into her skin and she almost laughed with the pain. She was exactly where she wanted to be.  
  
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She was older now. It had been quite a while, and she barely remembered what it felt like to be burned like that. Except, that lately, he had been burning her in a different way.  
  
It was like this every night, now. She would get dressed for bed and slip in between the sheets, and then he would come to her, smooth and sure fingers underneath her night gown, running over her body like a waterfall.  
  
He was never in pajamas, never weak like that. She had to undo his belt, the buttons on his shirt, the zipper, run the gauntlet to even glimpse the flesh that drove her wild. He was beautiful, graceful, and fierce as he grabbed handfuls of her red hair and tried to devour her whole.  
  
The flawless boy would drive into her, would take full advantage, and she loved every second of it. He was so much taller than her that in the end he resorted to kissing the top of her head, and she bit his shoulder to keep from screaming with joy.  
  
It was always the same, the sweating, writhing passion, the peak, and then . . . then she woke up. But it was so real, she had to believe . . .  
  
"Ginny?" Hermione stood over her. "It's nearly seven, you should get dressed."  
  
Ginny hurriedly glanced down at herself, and amazingly she was still covered by the duvet, her night gown, her underwear. Nothing had happened. She really shouldn't be surprised.  
  
"Did you have a nightmare? You're all flushed."  
  
Ginny swallowed. It was hard to speak after sex that good just moments before. But it hadn't happened. So she opened her mouth. "No, just . . . Maybe I'm getting sick." Maybe if she found an excuse to stay in bed, slip back into sleep, he would come back. She didn't care if she was crazy, if it wasn't real.  
  
"None of that, Virginia Weasley, I know you have an Arithmancy test today and you're going to class."  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes. It was so difficult to keep pretending. She belonged in Gryffindor, really. She was brave, strong, loyal . . . But there was nothing to say what she should stand up to, what she should fight for, and what she should be loyal to.  
  
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Author's note: Tell me what you think. Agent 00Weasley may yet be my favorite character, and she's barely formed.  
  
Longer chapters in the future, we find out what's going on with the dream sex, and move on from sex into an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Or, erm, seat-of-your-pants. Whatever. 


	2. Chapter Two

Agent V  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Warning about language, sex, violence, all the good stuff.  
  
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Ginny was yawning making her way to yet another late night S.P. meeting. When she got to the office, Snake, the senior S.P. Hogwarts agent, was rolling and unrolling a piece of parchment listlessly. In a former life she would have called him Malfoy.  
  
"Red," Her partner acknowledged her as she went behind a screen to change into her uniform.  
  
She tugged on her bootlaces. "Where are Ducky and Ringo with the Greens?" What bothered her most about this particular meeting was that she had to sit here listening to her partner act pompous instead of go to bed and dream about him doing things to her that would make bunnies blush.  
  
"They sparked about five minutes ago from the quidditch field."  
  
"That puts them, what, minus ten minutes?"  
  
"Something like that."  
  
They sat silently for a while. Three years as partners had made them comfortable friends. Well, at the moment, Ginny was an uncomfortable friend.  
  
"So what did you do last night?" Subtlety was the key to being an excellent secret agent.  
  
"Classified."  
  
"I'm your partner."  
  
"I'm your superior."  
  
"Come on, Snake."  
  
"You really want to know?" He looked a little suggestive. Maybe she wasn't crazy, and he really was visiting her in her dreams. "I jacked off in the shower, did my homework, and went to bed."  
  
"I envy your life."  
  
"You wanted to know." He ran a hand through his platinum blonde hair. "Where the hell are Ducky and Ringo?"  
  
"Minus five minutes." She yawned again. "Let's just make the Greens stay here overnight. We'll do initiation tomorrow."  
  
"We really ought to have some professionalism, Agent V."  
  
Ginny sat down in his visitor chair, putting her feet up on the desk. "Well, excuse me, Snake, but I remember a certain agent who pinched my ass at every possible moment during my initiation period."  
  
"That was conditioning to work under stress."  
  
"That was an ass man working under my dress."  
  
He rolled his eyes and pushed her feet off of his desk calendar. "Have you considered compiling some of that poetry, because, really, I could find another partner."  
  
Agent V examined her nails. "How come I don't get a desk?"  
  
"Because I'm the only one with a desk." He caught her pout and conceded. "You can have that bit if you'd like."  
  
"But it has someone's feet all over it."  
  
"For your sake I pray those Greens get here soon."  
  
There were three knocks followed by two on the trap door in the floor. Agent D raised an eyebrow at Ginny and nodded at the door. She bent over, exaggeratedly displaying her butt, and answering two knocks then three back. When four followed by one answered, she took up what looked like a straw from beside the door, stuck it in a chink in the woodwork, and blew. Two faint thuds, like bodies hitting a dirt floor, came from the other side of the door.  
  
"We'll have Ringo and Ducky do for them when they get here," Snake said nonchalantly.  
  
"My word this is getting boring." Ginny straightened out her uniform in a stray mirror. Hair tied back, black turtleneck, black fatigue pants, black boots. Nothing could be less flattering, except for the ski mask, and arm and waist utility packs she had to wear on mission.  
  
"Got to look nice for those blindfolded kids."  
  
"I do my best."  
  
Voices started to come from the trap. "Aw, fuck, Ringo."  
  
"I tripped."  
  
"Be more fucking careful."  
  
Three knocks, then two. Two knocks then three back. Three knocks then three. Two then two back.  
  
"Seven travelers seek shelter."  
  
"And what do they bring?" Ginny almost laughed as she wiggled her rear for Snake.  
  
"A lantern, a frog, and five unwise investments."  
  
She unlocked the trap, helping Ringo, a fifteen-year-old brown-haired brainer, and Ducky, the angriest nice guy ever, up. "Mission complete, Agent V."  
  
The boys helped Ginny drag the blindfolded, bound, and gagged recruits up through the floor. Agent D lined them up, muttering 'obscurus' to change his voice. Ginny and the boys followed suit. No need to have the ones who weren't chosen recognizing voices.  
  
"Kneel, people." When one was slow, he kicked her. "Kneel!"  
  
"You don't know why you're here and I'm not going to tell you until I'm sure you're up for it. If you prove to me that you can follow orders, withstand a little hardship, and use your heads you might find out what this is all about. If not, tough shit. Lay down. Face down, kiddies, now!"  
  
Ginny kind of hated doing these initiations. But they were necessary. If she hadn't been through this, she would have cracked on her first mission. She would have never understood the gravity of what she was taking on. So she marched the line with her partner, shouting and kicking those who weren't going fast enough. They had to learn how to be part of a team. They had to be broken down, then built back up. And in eight short weeks, one would be a keener person. She would have quicker responses and think more clearly under pressure, even though she would be cold, wet, and not allowed to sleep or eat for days. Then she would recite the rules:  
  
'I will protect the secret of wizardry from the non-wizarding world, within and without the wizarding community, with my service and my life. I will follow Secret Protectorate orders without question. I will not fraternize with non-wizards unless given direct permission from a superior for the purpose of a mission. I will never divulge confidential Secret Protectorate information, including the fact of its existence to any non-agent. I pledge myself to the Secret Protectorate above gods, family, and friends.'  
  
It was the pledge Ginny took three years before, and never broken. Not that it was easy. Agent D could just pretend he hated muggles out of pure bigotry, like his father had taught him. To a certain extent he did hate them. They were the ones who made the S.P. necessary, who created this life of secrecy and risking your life just to stay alive. And the muggle-lovers were the worst. Wizards who thought that if they educated the muggles, then everything would be okay. They didn't understand the unbridled hate that the unfamiliar could unleash in the world.  
  
The S.P. was busy all the time stopping information from crossing the lines between the worlds. To silence those who thought they knew better. And every time the non-wizarding papers reported anything odd, it was a personal failure.  
  
"Down, you fuck!" Ginny shouted, shoving someone's head into the floor with the heel of her boot. "Up! Up! Up!"  
  
At the end of the night, Ducky and Ringo took the Greens back to their rooms and Red and Snake changed back into street clothes. Except for their boots. There was a sort of bond you had with your footwear when your life depended on it.  
  
"You decent?" He asked. "Need to put my stuff up."  
  
"Go ahead." Ginny pulled her shirt down. "I hate doing that to those kids."  
  
"I know." Snake placed his perfectly folded uniform on a shelf, and transfigured it into a boring-looking book. "It's almost five-thirty in the morning."  
  
"Yeah." Ginny yawned again.  
  
"You must be totally shit-faced, you were tired when we started."  
  
"You were knackered yourself. Want to have some coffee before breakfast, or will that hour of sleep do you any good?"  
  
He jumped down through the trap door. "I'm going to bed."  
  
"Ah," she tried to muster her self-esteem back. "Another date with the shower."  
  
"Well, one of us ought to take one, Red." She took his hand as he helped her down out of sheer politeness. He'd seen her land twenty-foot jumps into tuck rolls.  
  
"The only thing dirty about me is between my ears." They automatically fell into the same step. It was one less set of footfalls for the enemy to hear.  
  
"What, need a hanky?"  
  
"We are way too tired for this."  
  
He put a hand on her shoulder. "You all right?"  
  
She shrugged it off. "Of course. See you."  
  
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Ginny had fooled herself into thinking that she would just stop by her dormitory, get changed into school clothes, then go to the Great Hall for some coffee. Then she decided to take a shower, which got her thinking about Snake, which made her think that an hour of sleep might not be a bad thing after all.  
  
Agent D obviously had no idea what was going on, so what was the harm in having an overactive imagination? It wasn't like her double life was giving her any time to carry on a relationship. All the stupid guys thinking they could win her over with sensitivity. What Agent V, what Ginny wanted was a quick wit and a hard fuck, because she knew how fleeting all the rest of it could be.  
  
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Author's Note: Not a whole lot happened, because, you know, I was establishing settings and characters. Something happened, but you aren't allowed to know what it is yet. 


	3. Chapter Three

Agent V  
  
Chapter Three  
  
Where we find out virtually nothing, but it could be funny.  
  
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Slam. Rustle. Thunk. Click click. Crinkle.  
  
Amanda, one of Ginny's dorm mates, was digging in her trunk ridiculously loudly. Or maybe it was just the hour of sleep talking. But what an hour it had been, she thought, stretching before opening her eyes.  
  
Bang. Plop. Creak.  
  
"Amanda!" Ginny screeched so loud that two girls who had still been asleep sat bolt upright in bed. Amanda stared at Ginny innocently, waiting for her to speak. "Um, could you be a little quieter?"  
  
"Uh, I suppose so . . ." Amanda looked perturbed.  
  
Olivia was having none of it. "It's not like you don't make enough noise, sneaking in here at all hours of the night."  
  
Ginny narrowed her eyes at Olivia. "I don't make any noise," she said quietly.  
  
"Well, you aren't invisible, anyway."  
  
Julie pulled her hair up into a ponytail. "Who's the boy?"  
  
Everyone in the room turned to look at the little red-haired girl, who suddenly felt naked despite her dressing gown. "I-- um . . ." The truth was that there hadn't been a boy in years. On the other hand, it was a decent cover story that apparently everyone already believed. She tried to think of a name. All that would come up was Ron . . . Fred . . . George . . . Percy . . . Charlie . . . Bill . . . Damn all her brothers, polluting her mind with useless names.  
  
Olivia flipped her hair and sprayed. Her normally mousy brown tresses turned a purply-black. Ginny scrunched her nose. That can was hers, and it was invaluable when you were a Weasley undercover. Before she could figure out what to say to a cosmetic thief, Olivia flipped her head back over and gave a superior look to the rest of the room (somewhat humorously because it looks odd when someone's eyebrows don't match their head hair). "It's Draco Malfoy, obviously. She sneaks around because her brother and the Potter boy would Rapunzel her."  
  
"They do have the same boots," Amanda said thoughtfully, and everyone nodded.  
  
Ginny was appalled. "Have you been speaking behind my back?" Nobody would meet her eye. "I can't believe you twits." It was the type of thing she said all the time, so they assumed she was just being friendly. Except she always meant it from the bottom of her heart.  
  
"Is he a good kisser?" Julie looked embarrassed at herself. "I mean, he's Malfoy and everything, but he has that walk . . ."  
  
Ginny knew what she meant. You could really tell what a guy was like by the way he walked. And Agent D never shuffled or loped. He walked with a determined confidence that could be appealing, if she were the kind of girl who needed someone to walk into her life and take charge.  
  
She played it coy, and just smiled at her bedspread as she tucked in the corners. That would be more convincing than any declaration of dark forbidden passion that she could come up with.  
  
"I knew it!" Amanda squealed. Ginny was sure that none of the adult S.P. agents had to worry about this kind of thing. Now she had a story she had to maintain.  
  
Agent V finished tying her boots--which were, in fact, the same issue as Agent D's--and slipped out of the room down to breakfast.  
  
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Ron, Harry, and Hermione were in the middle of a conversation when she sat down at the Gryffindor table.  
  
"Right in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, all banged up," Ron was nodding at Harry fervently.  
  
"Do they know who did it?" Harry was in his quidditch robes wolfing down eggs, which explained why everyone was eating so early. Ginny cursed quidditch.  
  
"Nobody knows." Hermione bit her toast primly. "Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey tried, and even I can't get anything out of them. Hello, Ginny."   
  
"What are you guys talking about?" she grabbed a bite off of her brother's plate. "Nobody needs that much bacon, Ron, honestly."  
  
"It's my bacon and I'll do what I please, you baby cow."  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron and took another piece of bacon from his plate. He looked flabbergasted, but she ignored him. "Killian James and Lucy Hamish were having a pash in this tunnel under the castle, and then they woke up in the Forbidden Forest with tentacles for arms."  
  
"Oh," Ginny said quietly, trying to maintain appearances. When Ducky and Ringo saw that they had a couple of lovesick Hufflepuffs on their hands, why didn't they lay off? They were probably trying to impress Snake. Who was, basically, not impressable, so she didn't know why they bothered.   
  
But Hermione wasn't finished. "Luckily I got Killian to tell me where the tunnel was before Madam Pomfrey tossed me out of the hospital wing."  
  
"Really?" Ginny asked weakly. This could be really bad news for Hogwarts S.P.  
  
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Agent D was impressed to see Red at breakfast before him after their late night. She got up and walked straight toward him. He got in her way.  
  
"Watch where you're going, Weasley," he said loudly, knocking the books out of her arms.  
  
She knelt down to gather her stuff. "Meet me during lunch. Priority eleven," she muttered.  
  
He scooped up her Arithmancy book and held it too high for her to reach. "The scale only goes to ten," he said under his breath as she pretended to hop for her book.  
  
"I said, this is an eleven," she whispered through gritted teeth as she put a hand on his shoulder and jumped, using the extra few inches she gained to grab her book and yank it out if his hand. Draco was silently amused, but then realized they were in front of a half-full hall and switched his face around into a scowl.  
  
Ginny pushed past him to leave the hall, and Agent D avoided the eyes of the Slytherin quidditch team as he sat down. There was another thing him and the girl had in common. Giving up the sport for the S.P. He'd tried a little longer to maintain, but he couldn't stand the late nights, early mornings, and split loyalties after a while.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a small group of Gryffindor girls giggling and squealing around Red as she tried to leave the hall. It was an unusual sight, the girl without makeup, with her hair back in a serviceable ponytail and combat boots on her feet, being worshipped in the middle of a gossip circle. He put it in the back of his mind to tease her about later, and went back to his breakfast.  
  
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Agent V waited in an alcove near the entrance to the lunch room. She knew her brother and his friends, well intentioned but the kind of people who thought the curious cat was awarded more lives. They had to wait on this one. Hermione wouldn't want to go into this new mystery without some research, right?  
  
Her biggest fear was that the trio would dash right to that hidden passageway during lunch hour, before she and Agent D had time to hide their tracks. Drat those Hufflepuffs! It had been a good office for nearly a year. But there was always moving, because of curious students with too much time on their hands being given free reign of the castle. It had been six months of research to get the Marauder's map to show herself and the other agents where they were supposed to be instead of where they actually were. The trio were always causing problems.  
  
Snake was back at headquarters if this did blow up, but she really didn't want him to find them, either. If he did, if they rushed into this and he had no other choice, then of course she would have him do as he saw fit. Her first loyalty was to the Secret Protectorate. And, really, he wasn't the mad sadist that some Gryffindors thought he was. That was his cover story, and it was even less true than hers about the boyfriend. She cringed, thinking about having to deal with the aftermath of that. Those girls couldn't keep their mouths shut for more than a few seconds. Ron would be calling her worse than 'baby cow.'  
  
Ginny heard a familiar voice coming down the staircase, and breathed a sigh of relief as Harry, Ron, and Hermione headed into lunch.  
  
"I know you want to go busting in and putting yourselves in all kinds of danger, but I'm not even telling you two where the tunnel is until I get a little more information," Hermione was saying.  
  
Harry and Ron looked exasperated with her. "You know," Ron was saying, "we could just go to the hospital wing and ask them ourselves."  
  
"No, we can't. I already tried." Harry was given the evil eye by Hermione. "They're not letting anybody anywhere near. Apparently some Slytherins were taunting Killian and Lucy through the door, so now nobody is allowed."  
  
Ron snorted. "Probably Malfoy and his lot."  
  
Agent V high-tailed it to headquarters, armed with at least the lunch hour. Ron had no idea how little interest Agent D would have in taunting a couple down-on-their-luck Hufflepuffs. And even if he did feel compelled to hurl a couple insults, he would refrain because it would give him an overt connection to the victims. And Snake was always professionally covert. It was how he'd earned the name. Snakes didn't leave tracks.  
  
She performed the opposite set of knocks and verbal messages, and Agent D opened the door for her.  
  
"Should I get Ducky and Ringo?" Snake had his wand poised over his chest, where his brand was. You-Know-Who had stolen the idea from a corrupt S.C. agent.  
  
Agent V shook her head. "Leave them out of it. If the trio sees them leave the lunchroom, they might get suspicious." The trio were a constant source of annoyance to the S.P.  
  
"Suit yourself. What's going on?" He put his wand back in his pocket.  
  
"Our location's been compromised. Those two that I fairy dusted last night . . . Ducky and Ringo went a bit overboard. So the trio investigated. And now they know there's something up with our tunnel. Time to move on." She looked around the office. This was where they'd been the longest. They'd relaxed, and made it home. Ringo had never known another location. There were pillows on the floor, a screen to change behind instead of trusting that the boys had their backs turned, rugs on the floor and a cabinet for Agent D's files. It was probably a good thing they'd been forced to move. A good H.Q., according to the S.P. rules, should be able to be wiped clean of all evidence of the S.P. within ten minutes. Ginny doubted they'd get it all in the hour they had.  
  
Snake appeared to be having the same thoughts. "We'd better get started." He pulled open his cabinet and stacked the files on his desk, performing encoding charms on the papers within.  
  
Agent V was gathering the uniforms, equipment, mission packs, and tools into boxes and transfiguring them into everyday items, then shrinking them so they fit in her pockets.  
  
"So what were all those girls gaggling all over you in the lunchroom for?"  
  
Ginny tried to sink into the floor. It didn't work. But then again, he was probably the best person she had to talk to about this sort of thing. "You know how cover stories can get way out of hand?"  
  
"No." He said a little too quickly.  
  
Agent V narrowed her eyes. "Remember that time you worked in Zonko's tracking that export ring, and a Hogsmeade weekend came up so you tried to make two of yourself?"  
  
"Vaguely." He cleared his throat. "So what does this have to do with you and those girls?"  
  
"You're the one who asked. Besides, I always wondered which parts doubled in size and which you got two of . . . can't imagine why you wouldn't let me help reverse it."  
  
"I'm begging you Red, get on with your own story."  
  
"Fine. They think, you know, because of my late nights and sneaking away and all, they think I have a boyfriend I have to hide from my friends."  
  
"That doesn't seem like it's out of hand."  
  
Ginny raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh?"  
  
"Apart from the fact that they believe you could catch one, that is."  
  
Insults she was used to. "You haven't heard the out of hand part yet. I didn't say anything, I swear, and they're all over me with, 'Isn't Malfoy dreamy?' and 'you have the same boots.' Like nobody ever had the same shoes before."  
  
"Really?" He had a self-satisfied grin on his face.  
  
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"  
  
"A little. So, am I a good kisser?"  
  
"According to Julie, you walk sexy, which implies it. According to me, you're an ass."  
  
"Excellent. I didn't know I had so much sway with those Gryffindors. That Julie, she's the blonde, right?"  
  
"Wait a second, you're my boyfriend. You're not supposed to blow my cover."  
  
"I thought blowing your cover was a big part of being your boyfriend." He winked at her and waggled his eyebrows.  
  
She just stared at her vulgar partner.  
  
"Hey, according to my girlfriend, I'm an ass, so maybe I philander a bit." He shut the last folder. "I don't think this is out of hand. It's a good cover. In fact, for the sake of realism, would you like to go under cover in my dorm tonight?"  
  
"You are so lucky you're . . ." Agent V trailed off.  
  
"What? So adorable?"  
  
"My superior. Or else I'd have Ducky and Ringo take care of your adorable arse a bit."  
  
"You couldn't stand to do that to your boyfriend, could you?" He sashayed across the room with his box of files. "What about my sexy walk?"  
  
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Author's Note: Um, yeah, a bit more set up with a couple of suggestive comments. The story, for the most part, will be more about the S.P. thwarting the trio and perhaps another mission, and the toll that the S.P. has versus her friends and all that, but there is the cover story for a bit of comic relief. Not really a D/G fic, but they flirt with it so you D/G shippers, enjoy.  
  
Thanks to: Sabina, mell8, shamrock rocker, and Francis Flute who reviewed and encouraged me to keep writing. Also to a day spent skipping class and watching Cody Banks and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy which gave me the idea. 


	4. Chapter Four

The lunch hour was almost over, and the agents looked around the room sadly.  
  
Ginny patted her pockets. It was a habit to constantly reassure yourself your tools were there. Until you were in action mode, and then, they just were there or they weren't when you reached for them. And sometimes that meant somebody lived or died or got their nose broken. Or sometimes your nose got broken just sitting back at H.Q. sparring with your partner.  
  
Both their eyes rested on a bloodstain on the wall that Magical Mess Remover couldn't remove. "Sorry about that," Snake told her. "It was dead funny though."  
  
"You weren't supposed to duck." She laughed. "How pathetic is this, standing around all weepy, 'There's where I did a front handspring into the wall where your face wasn't.'"  
  
"And there's where I dumped buckets of ice water on Ducky until he cried," Agent D joined in the reminiscence.  
  
"It was Ringo we initiated here."  
  
"Who said anything about initiation?" He coughed politely. "He had naked pictures of you."  
  
"Oh yeah, over there's where I posed for Ducky's art homework," Ginny said nonchalantly, looking over at Snake out of the corner of her eye.  
  
"What?" He could have done a spit take.  
  
"Ever ask if they were consensual naked paintings? Honestly. It was only my back, anyway."  
  
Snake smirked. "That's not what it looks like now."  
  
Agent V shrugged, suddenly conscious of how that made her body move. "Paintings move. It's not me." She moved over to the trap door. "It's nice to know how you feel, though."  
  
He sniffed. "I'm protective of my partner."  
  
She looked at him critically. "I think 'possessive' might be a better word."  
  
He was about to retort when she held up a hand. Bloody hell. Someone was fiddling with the lock. Since when had super-secret headquarters turned into an open house?  
  
She motioned wildly at Snake when she couldn't find the bowl by the door. 'Fairy dust?' she mouthed.  
  
'You.' he pointed at her pocket.  
  
She grimaced. 'Damn.' There were so many tiny things in her pocket that weren't what they seemed. It was no use looking.  
  
He took off his shirt and tossed it to her, slowly walking over to the entrance with his wand out. 'One, two . . . Three.'  
  
Ginny unlocked the door with her foot. A head immediately popped through, which she covered with the shirt. Agent D yelled "Stupefy!" and the head went back through the hatch. Seamless.  
  
Agent D dropped through the hatch and retrieved his shirt, which was covered in dirt. "Hell."  
  
"Toss it up here, I'll do a scrubbing charm." Ginny shook her head at stupid boys who refused to learn how to clean.  
  
"Uh, Red?" Snake's voice came up from the hole in the floor.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Come down here."  
  
She hopped down through the trap. Snake was holding a limp body, trying to position it so that he could carry it. For a moment Ginny was transfixed by the mark on his chest. She barely noticed her own, she barely ever checked out the small of her own back, but he had put his right out front, where he had to stare at it every morning in the mirror. Is that why he'd put hers back there? Had he taken pity on her?  
  
He shifted and Ginny saw who he was holding.  
  
"Hermione," she said dully.  
  
"Yeah. Do you want me to . . ."  
  
Ginny shook her head. This was her responsibility. It was weighing upon her like lead. "Do you know the featherlight charm or something?"  
  
"Yeah." He did the charm and she levitated Hermione in front of her. It was surprising that there had never been need to knock out one of the trio before, and she was in a little shock. Agent D recognized it. "Stay sharp, Red. Go back up into the room and look behind the tapestry. There's a door there, you have to say the word and it'll pop right up. Take her through there, up a set of stairs and you'll come out behind another tapestry on the third floor. From there it's a straight shot down the stairs and across the balcony to Gryffindor tower."  
  
She stared at him in disbelief. "You've been hiding that from me?"  
  
"We're all on a need to know basis, Agent V." He wouldn't meet her eye.  
  
She shifted on her feet uncomfortably. "Yeah. Yeah, I know."  
  
"Up you go, then." She hopped back up through the trap door, and Snake pushed the lightened Hermione up after her. "Take care, Red."  
  
Ginny nodded, then flipped the door closed with her toe. There were things to be taken care of.  
  
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Hermione had her after lunch class with Ron and Harry, so Ginny knew that as soon as that class was over, they would come rushing to her rescue. In the meantime, she had to figure out what Hermione thought she knew and attempt to change it.  
  
"What happened?" Hermione was groggily waking up on the couch in the Gryffindor common room.  
  
"I don't know. What do you remember?"  
  
"I was-- I was going somewhere."  
  
"Do you remember where?"  
  
"Harry and Ron are going to kill me, but I was going to that tunnel, you know, where Killian and Lucy were attacked."  
  
"Then what happened?" You couldn't prompt. You had to just draw what they knew out of them.  
  
"I was fooling with the lock in the dark, then the door suddenly came open, but it was bright above the door so I couldn't see. And then there was something over my head. And someone stupefied me." Hermione looked at Ginny. "Where did you find me?"  
  
Ginny swallowed. "I found you out in the hall. I forgot my books so I had to come back."  
  
"Lucky me," Hermione said tiredly.  
  
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On the weekend, Ginny stood outside, somewhere in between the lake and the castle, waiting. It had been a few days since she had seen Snake, and there was a tiny niggle of anticipation as a beautiful dark owl swooped down at her, alighting on her arm as she took the letter from him.  
  
The message was unreadable. She tapped it with her wand. "Agent D is the greatest." She rolled her eyes as the words unscrambled themselves.  
  
V. Found new location. Fourth floor storage. Third door on the left after the crooked staircase from second story. Hidden ladder behind bookshelf. New passcodes in separate letter. Secrecy, Sorcery, Solidarity. D.  
  
He was still going to make her wait. The fact that they hadn't spoken since the Hermione incident hurt. He must have prepared reports and documented the incidents with Killian, Lucy, and Hermione, and submitted summaries of the initiation alone. He was setting up a new office without her. Maybe he didn't trust her anymore.   
  
Or maybe it was all in her head. He hadn't come to her last night, and her sleep was fitful. The S.P. should lay low for a while, when the spotlight was on what had happened with the Hufflepuffs. Hermione, thankfully, hadn't reported her own incident.  
  
Word in the halls was that the Hufflepuffs' parents were going to be allowed to visit them. That made Ginny uneasy. Any new set of eyes on campus was unnerving. What if they had their glasses tinted just the right way to see? She wanted to talk to Snake about it.  
  
_________________________________________________________________________  
  
Author's Note: Last time I totally forgot X files. Duh. Cool witty tall agent teamed with short smart red-headed agent.  
  
Definite emotional storyline being set up here. External conflicts in the infant stages.  
  
Let me know what you think of Agent V. 


End file.
